Matthew Naitove Contributing Editor

monitoring 24 Mar 2023

Manufacturers’ Superpower: ‘X-Ray Vision’ into Your Processes

Meet a ‘new’ name (to North American processors) in MES software, which provides a simple, modular way to achieve visibility into your production operations.

Packaging 22 Mar 2023

Cobot Case Packer for Containers

Compact, mobile system with collaborative robot eases labor shortage for container packing.

Resin Conveying 13 Mar 2023

Single View of Bin & Silo Material Levels in Multiple Locations

Got a bin in Buffalo and a silo in San José? BinMaster’s latest addition to its cloud inventory software lets you see all your resin inventory anywhere in one view.

Automation 13 Mar 2023

Machine Intelligence Mobilized Against Waste

Part quality was naturally the first target of autonomous molding algorithms, but later developments have focused increasingly on preventing wasted time, energy, material and hardware maintenance.

Blow Molding 8 Mar 2023

Magic North America Adds Showroom Machine

New model all-electric shuttle blow molder available for demonstrations.

business 1 Mar 2023

Teaching Kids About the ‘Magic’ of Manufacturing

Making something out of (almost) nothing is an ‘eye opener’ for youngsters in their first exposure to plastics processing.

PVC 17 Feb 2023

VCM in the News Again, Not in a Good Way

Those three letters, V-C-M, stood out from the headlines of the toxic train wreck in Ohio this past week — bringing up echoes of a time that few may remember today, when the vinyl industry was in an uproar over reports of VCM hazards in the workplace and possibly in PVC food packaging.

Blow Molding 13 Feb 2023

Sidel Acquires Another Label Machinery Firm

Makro Labelling adds low- to medium-speed technologies.

sustainability 6 Feb 2023

This Might Have Been Written by a Robot

Well, I trust you would notice the difference. But you’d be surprised how well the “bots” can compose plausible text almost instantly. I challenged a popular AI “chatbot” to address some current concerns about chemical recycling. Some useful lessons resulted.